California · Nonprofit
Roots of Success
Roots of Success (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $67,000 to it, the largest being IMPACTASSETSINC ($66,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $67k
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Roots of Success does
Mission
?Roots of Success? RoS is an empowering environmental literacy and job training 501c3 program that prepares youth and adults to access jobs and career pathways in environmental fields, and to improve environmental conditions in their communities. The program is centered around a federal and California state registered Department of Labor Apprenticeship and Pre-Apprenticeship and a 10-module course. Pre-apprentices earn an ?Environmental Specialist? credential. Apprentices earn a ?CTE Environmental Literacy Instructor? credential.The program is offered in a wide range of settings that include: high schools, youth programs, adult schools, job training programs, reentry programs, prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. Since 2009, the program has been offered in over 600 schools and organizations throughout the United States over 26,000 youth and adults have gone through the program, more than 12,000 took the course while incarcerated.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Expanded apprenticeship and Pre- apprenticeship program. Increased revenue, strengthened the leadership team and strengthened infrastructure.
$449,419 spent$689,562 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $449,419.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $1.6M to $2.8M (+81%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2023 30% · 2024 38% · 2025 59%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of Roots of Success’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Kay O'Neill
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $33k → $34k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 99% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Roots of Success’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Roots of Success leans on a few funders — its largest provides 99% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Roots of Success.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 100% · 2023 99% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
99% of Roots of Success's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside California, across 1 state.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $66k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Roots of Success runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Roots of Success receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $17k on record.
- PROF DEV TRAINING MATERIALS$15k
- OFFICE SUPPLIES$2k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Roots of Success
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Roots of Success: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Roots of Success?
- Roots of Success (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $67,000 to it, the largest being IMPACTASSETSINC ($66,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Roots of Success have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $67,000 in grants to Roots of Success, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Roots of Success?
- IMPACTASSETSINC is the largest funder on record, with $66,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Roots of Success find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Roots of Success →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), and the filings of 2 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing